


what fades, what stays

by burntotears



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-09
Updated: 2012-08-09
Packaged: 2017-11-11 18:33:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/481581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/burntotears/pseuds/burntotears
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek and Stiles' relationship is sucking the life out of them and they know that they cannot continue down this path without wrecking one another.  But even when they agree to end things, will they stay out of each other's way when Gerard is threatening the other's life?</p>
            </blockquote>





	what fades, what stays

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU idea based off of [qhuinn](http://qhuinn.tumblr.com/)'s [GIF-set](http://burntotears.tumblr.com/post/29103689027/qhuinn-sterek-au-where-derek-is-kidnapped-and): Sterek AU where Derek is kidnapped and Stiles saves him.
> 
> Incorporation of events up to 2x11. Diverges from canon in that Stiles is more involved with the pack than has been shown in the show yet and there is an established relationship already. Also he wasn't kidnapped at the end of 2x11.
> 
> Title from _No Light, No Light_ by Florence + the Machine.

“Stiles,” Derek said quietly, voice barely audible in the darkness of the room. “I don’t-”

“Just don’t,” Stiles’ words broke over him. He sat up and moved his feet over the edge of the bed, the sheets pooling in his lap as he scrubbed his hands over his face in frustration. “I don’t want to hear it, Derek.”

“That’s not fair,” Derek replied and he was reaching out for Stiles, he had to be, but Stiles couldn’t feel anything on his bare back but bitterness and cold.

“It is,” he replied simply, because he was tired of having this conversation. He was just plain tired. “It’s the only way and you know it.”

“I can _protect_ you,” Derek said and this was not a quiet revelation, but held a growl of possessiveness and something else that Stiles didn’t want to consider right now. He couldn’t, because it would only make things more difficult when the morning came and this was over. 

“You can’t protect me from yourself,” Stiles said and it was a lie - one that he didn’t believe but it was one of the few ways he knew he could get Derek to _stop_. This wasn’t about who was human and who was werewolf, this was about the sickness of this relationship and how both of them were going to get themselves killed because they weren’t thinking clearly. It had to end before they gave up their lives for nothing more than a few words. He continued in a more truthful instance, “We won’t survive each other if we keep going down this road. And I _won’t_ be responsible for you, Derek.” He couldn’t say the words how he really meant them - that he wouldn’t be the one responsible for Derek’s _death_.

“You’re just giving up after all this?” Derek asked incredulously and this time he did touch Stiles. He was behind him, pressing his chest against the curve of Stiles’ back and it was no surprise that the pale man leaned back into him instinctively. Derek wrapped his arms around Stiles’ waist protectively and Stiles let him because it wasn’t going to happen for much longer now.

He sighed. “I’m not giving _up_ , I’m just not giving _in_ anymore.” He was always giving in and he couldn’t handle it anymore. It was just too much.

“It’ll never work, Stiles. You know it won’t.” Derek’s mouth was on his neck, still marking him as his own even though Stiles was telling him it was over. This was how fucked up things were between them.

“It has to be better than _this_. We’ll both be better than _this_ ,” he groaned as Derek moved down his collarbone, nipping and licking haphazardly, his hand working over Stiles’ cock that was already hard again despite having just finished minutes ago.

“If we do this - if I agree to this - it means that you can’t come after me again. No matter what happens,” Derek spoke softly near his ear before snatching it in between his lips.

“You have to stop interfering,” Stiles hissed, pressing himself up into Derek’s hand more forcibly.

He felt Derek tense behind him. He knew the werewolf was trying to keep Stiles out of harm’s way - the harm that came all too naturally from being with Derek - but he wasn’t really agreeing to stop protecting Stiles. That wasn’t the deal though, and they both had to stick to it if it were to truly amount to anything. “Then stop helping Scott,” Derek growled low in his throat, running fingernails across Stiles’ stomach and chest. “Stop helping _them_.”

“That’s not up to you, Derek. You won’t be any better off than I am, so stop trying to make this about me being human.” Without Erica and Boyd, with only Isaac at his side, he was weaker and he was pissed off and he barely thought twice about anything he did. 

“That _is_ what it’s about, Stiles,” Derek growled and Stiles saw the flash of red near his face. “You’re weak and you can’t do this anymore.” He wasn’t talking about what was between them, but he might as well have been. It was Stiles’ biggest flaw in the midst of all this - he was _weak_.

“You’re weak too, Derek,” Stiles snapped back with venom behind his words this time. “You refuse to let anyone in and that’s why you have lost most of your pack. If it wasn’t for Scott, you’d have lost Isaac too.” It was getting more difficult to talk about this with the hand on him, but he had to get his point across too. Stiles turned and pushed Derek down against the bed, but only because Derek let him. He straddled Derek’s waist and leaned down into his face with a tight expression on his face. “ _You_ can’t do this anymore, because _you’re_ weak.”

Derek’s eyes flashed red again and he flipped them, shoving Stiles’ face into the mattress and aligning himself on top. He bit at the back of his shoulder blade and then he was pushing inside of Stiles without warning. It wasn’t as if he was unwilling, but he would rather have not done this again before the end. But it was too much for Stiles to protest to and he was giving in again...

When Stiles woke up, Derek was gone and the lingering scent of him was all over Stiles’ body and his sheets. He stood in the shower with the burning water running over his skin until it ran cold and it still didn’t get the smell off him. It probably would never go away.

\-----

“We’re doing this,” Stiles said gruffly, tossing his bag on the floor of Scott’s room. “We have to get them back.”

Scott nodded and looked over to Isaac. “Have you heard from Derek?”

“No, not since yesterday. He told me not to try anything though. That it was too much-” he glanced at Stiles briefly before continuing, “-for all of us.”

Scott looked skeptical. “Is Peter still around?”

“Yeah, I think so. He wants to be in Derek’s pack.”

“ _Seriously?_ ” Stiles asked in disbelief, because this he hadn’t been told. Derek was still keeping things from him which shouldn’t be surprising, but it also meant that there was trouble brewing from more than just the Argents. But they had to focus on one thing at a time if they were going to survive this - if they were going to _win_. He shook his head, clearing his own thoughts. “We don’t have time to worry about Peter right now. If Derek is stupid enough to - we just can’t deal with that right now.”

“Yeah, but I don’t think Peter is going to do anything while the Argents are still a threat. I think he’s just looking for a place to hide and then once it’s over...” Scott said, looking leery about the whole thing.

Isaac shivered a little. “Let’s just focus on getting Boyd and Erica back and then we’ll worry about Peter and Derek.”

They all nodded in agreement and hunkered down in a huddle, continuing to hatch their plan to get to Erica and Boyd - through a whole lot of firepower, no less.

\-----

He knew that Gerard was ready for them - that he was expecting them to come and the minute that they showed themselves all hell was truly going to break loose. But he didn’t have the time to think about that, just like he didn’t have the space inside of his head right now for Derek to be lurking, doing whatever ridiculous things he might be doing with Peter. Stiles had driven him away and straight into the arms of a psychopath so whatever happened with Peter was probably going to be his fault. Just fucking wonderful.

Stiles shook his head of these thoughts and focused himself back on his task. He was supposed to enter in on his own to distract the Argents from Isaac and Scott coming around behind; he just hoped that it didn’t blow up in their faces like most things did these days.

With everything set - guards downed by his werewolf companions for his convenience - Stiles walked easily into the proverbial front door of hell and braced himself for what he was going to find on the other side. First he saw Erica and Boyd, tied up and hanging from the ceiling looking worn and tired but really, they could look worse so he was slightly relieved. Right ahead of him was Chris, Gerard and - “ _Allison?_ What the fuck?”

“Stiles, give us Derek and we’ll give you the stupid Betas,” Allison was the one who spoke, but he was having trouble comprehending it. This definitely wasn’t the Allison he knew and he had a feeling that she had been twisted into this by Gerard. His confirmation came in the form of the sick smile on Gerard’s face and the way Chris Argent looked shifty at best. He still had a gun in his hand though, so uncomfortable or not it didn’t make much of a difference for Stiles’ position.

“Allison, I don’t know where Derek is. None of us do. And...Peter’s back, Allison. You remember Peter, the one who ripped Lydia apart on the field?” Stiles knew that Allison was the only one he could get through to and if Allison came then Chris probably would too. That just left _Gerard_. 

He saw the hesitation flit across Allison’s face which was all the affirmation he needed to see that she was still inside there, hidden beneath this Amazonian woman who was grieving the loss of a mother. “Peter didn’t kill my mother,” she said, but she was shaky on the delivery so it didn’t sound quite as convincing as she wanted it to.

“Derek didn’t kill her either. She killed herself because of some stupid ideals that your family has. That wasn’t anyone’s fault but her own for buying into that crap. You don’t have to do that, Allison. You’re better than this.” But that didn’t seem to be the right thing to say either. He’d gone about things the wrong way apparently, because that mask was back in place in an instant and she was raising her bow to him.

“Derek _bit_ her, Stiles. That wasn’t her fault, it was _his_.”

“And did you ever find out how she got bit? Did you even bother to ask your family what she was doing to get herself bit?” he was frustrated with her and he knew that taking it down this road wasn’t going to help anyone. Derek had told him about what happened when he went to go save Scott and from what it sounded like, he didn’t really mean to - it just sort of happened. 

“I don’t think that’s important. None of this gives us the information on Derek’s location, does it?” Gerard decided to jump in then, which meant that Stiles was taking Allison in a direction they didn’t want her to go. Or more-so, Gerard didn’t want her to know whereas Chris was probably just trying to protect Allison more than destroy every werewolf in existence like her crazy-face grandpa. 

“You know, I think it has everything to do with it,” Stiles replied, glaring at the old man. “I think that you’re keeping the truth from Allison so that you can use her anger and fear to fuel this fight. You’re a manipulative son of a bitch, not to mention a pretty terrible grandfather.”

“If you know what’s good for you, Stiles, you’ll quit delaying and just give us the information we need. We’ll let you go free and you can take the Betas with you,” Chris piped up, apparently trying to keep Allison from being able to question too much of what Stiles was saying. Was Chris afraid of Gerard too? Was he being manipulated in the same way?

“How the fuck would I be able to trust what you say? Apparently all your family does is lie and manipulate and you think that I’m going to take you for your word?” he asked, feeling unnerved by just how whacked-out these people could get. Or maybe he was more anxious that he probably hadn’t seen that threshold quite yet.

“I don’t think you have much of a choice, Stiles. We know about your plan to distract us and we’ve already caught Isaac and Scott. They won’t be coming to help you,” Gerard was practically preening himself as he spoke. 

Well that was...not good at all. If Scott and Isaac really weren’t going to be able to come to his aid and he was really on his own here, things had just gotten a little more complicated and a lot more dangerous. 

Chris raised his gun at him and Stiles flinched looking down the barrel. “We won’t hurt you, Stiles. We don’t kill innocent people. We just need the Alpha.”

Nervousness was a great fuel for word vomit, it seemed. “Don’t kill innocent people? Are you joking? What do you think Gerard has been doing - he’s been threatening to kill everyone we know to get this information from Scott! If you were really bound by some moral werewolf-hunting code, you wouldn’t have this nutjob with you and you sure as hell wouldn’t be letting him mind-fuck your teenage daughter!”

“That’s enough, Stiles. Just tell us or we’re going to have to take more drastic measures,” Chris replied through clenched teeth, though Stiles swore he saw worry in his brow at the things Stiles had mentioned.

“You just said you don’t hurt innocents and I told you I don’t _know_ where Derek is, so I don’t really see where that leaves us besides up a shit creek.” 

“You’re lying! You’ve been sleeping with him!” Allison was almost crying from frustration and confusion at this point. But for her to mention that to her father and grandfather was a huge stab in the back. She hadn’t even had this vendetta against Derek until they created it for her - this whole situation was going to hell in a handbag and he was basically just along for the ride. He might as well get comfortable at this point.

“That was low,” he growled under his breath, but Allison could see the betrayed look in his face and she had the shrewdness to look at least a little bit sorry for being such a bitch to get what she wanted.

“Tumbling with the Alpha, Stilinski? You do know that puts you in a spectacular position, right?” Gerard asked, feigning interest. “For us it means that we now know his weakness and it’s not the Betas.” He turned his attention to Chris. “Get rid of them, we don’t need them anymore. All we need is the human boy, apparently.” 

“Well you can’t have him.”

Stiles whipped around to find Derek dropping from the rafters just behind him and they exchanged a heated look that was too much for him to fully comprehend just then. This situation was getting worse by the minute. “ _Derek_ ,” Stiles hissed, knowing that he was not going to have the time to say half of the things he wanted to. “Get out of here before you make things worse.”

Derek laughed sharply. “Worse than you’ve already made things? I don’t think that’s possible, Stiles.”

Gerard’s smile was too creepy for Stiles’ liking. Chris was pointing his gun at Derek now and Allison had her bow aimed at Derek’s heart. This was _not_ how things were supposed to go. “I told you not to interfere,” Stiles said, barely moving his lips this time.

“I told you not to try and save them, so I guess we’re even,” he replied and he didn’t bother with whispering. Asshole. 

“That’s enough talking,” Allison said through gritted teeth. “Come with us and we’ll let him go,” she said, motioning toward Stiles.

“I’m not agreeing to that,” Stiles said and stepped in front of Derek, who growled behind him.

“Stiles, get _out_ of here.” He pushed against Stiles’ arm just to get him out of the way, but the sudden movement apparently spooked the Argents and then too many things happened at once. Chris’ gun went off and Allison’s bow string twanged and Stiles was aware only too late that he had been hit by at least one of them. People were screaming and there was gasping but the commotion went mostly unnoticed by him, because he was fading from the wound in his side. It was definitely the most intense pain he’d ever experienced before.

“Stiles! _Stiles!_ ” he heard someone calling to him, but whoever it was was entirely too far away for Stiles to hear properly. Bleary-eyed and too weary to continue holding himself in consciousness, he dropped away into the blackness just as he felt arms roughly lifting him from the floor.

\-----

When he woke up next he heard the steady beeping of a monitor near his head and a faint dripping sound. It took him quite a while to remember what had happened but slowly it began seeping into his mind, along with a throbbing pain in his lower right side. Finally he remembered exactly what had occurred and the fact that he also _didn’t_ know what occurred and his eyes shot open to the faint light of the hospital room.

“Oh hey, man, you’re awake finally,” he heard Isaac say, and blinked furiously as the curly-haired boy came into focus next to him.

“What happened?” Stiles croaked, his voice cracking from disuse. Isaac pressed something cylindrical into his hand - it was a cup of water.

“You got shot by Chris...though I don’t think he meant to do it, from what Erica says.” Stiles could tell he was attempting not to sound too excited by the entire ordeal, but once you’ve survived a gunshot (and weren’t a werewolf who could heal magically), it was technically a pretty cool story. Except right now Stiles was too busy trying to process everything to fully recognize his greatness.

The water soothed his throat and with it the memories came back more vividly. Derek appearing behind him and then pushing him to the side and the sound of gunfire and the searing pain in his side. He looked down at his side to see the bandages that covered the wound there. “Isaac, what happened after I blacked out?”

He had been waiting to tell this story, Stiles could see the way he sat forward with a bounce and gleam in his eyes. “The bullet hit you in the side and Allison’s arrow got Derek in the arm as he was pushing you. He completely freaked out when you got hit and went straight for Gerard at full-force Alpha. He practically ripped him in half, but Chris shot him to keep him from killing Gerard outright. And then...” Isaac no longer sounded excited, his eyes dropped to the floor with unease flooding through them.

“Isaac?” Stiles hissed, telling him to continue but not certain if he was ready for the rest of the story. “He’s not-?” he ventured.

“I doubt it. I mean, they would want to draw it out and torture him, I’m sure,” the werewolf replied matter-of-factly. 

“ _They’ve got Derek?_ Isaac! Why didn’t you guys _stop_ them?”

He looked properly scorned. “We couldn’t! Derek wouldn’t let us! He made us leave, all four of us! He made us take you and leave and told us if we came after him - if we tried to save him - he’d just kill us after! We can’t do anything, Stiles! We couldn’t do a damned thing. I’m sorry...”

Stiles sat up, anger building inside him from this news, but the movement shot pain through his side that was harsh and hot and he grunted from the force of it, unable to stop a tear from slipping out of his eye. Then Isaac reached out and placed his hand firmly over Stiles’ forearm as though he were going to comfort him, but instead there was the oddest sensation of tugging and for a brief moment Stiles felt a connection to Isaac like nothing he’d ever experienced with anyone. It was as though they were melding into one another and becoming the same person and Stiles could feel all the weariness that was Isaac’s heavy heart mingling with his own distress, but just as suddenly as it had come it was going as Isaac pulled his hand away. The veins on his arm were wriggling with black and Stiles no longer felt the sting of pain in his wounded side.

“ _What the **hell** was that?_ ” Stiles asked, none too discreetly because at this point he just couldn’t take anymore weirdness. He was drained all the way to his bones.

“I was helping you. I took some of the pain away,” Isaac said quietly and he sounded awed as he spoke about it.

“Since when can you do _that?_ ” he didn’t remember Scott telling him about this before.

“Apparently always, I just didn’t know about it. Deaton showed me.”

“Right,” Stiles replied, not really sure what else there was to say. “Thanks, I guess, though some warning might have been nice.” He knew he sounded like a dick, but he was too damned weary to care too much.

Isaac didn’t seem to take offense anyway. “It wasn’t really that intense with the dog. I guess you connect more with another human,” he said, looking a bit sheepish.

Stiles nodded and lifted up the side arm of the hospital bed so he could push his legs over the side of the bed. Isaac’s eyebrows shot up. “What are you doing?”

“Getting up, what does it look like?”

“You were just _shot_ , Stiles. What the hell do you think you’re going to do?”

“I’m going to save Derek before the Argents get the chance to kill him,” Stiles replied in a tone that sounded a little too much like ‘ _duh!_ ’

“Stiles, you can’t go after him!” Isaac said desperately.

“Actually I can, because I’m lucky enough to not be a werewolf so I don’t have to listen to a damned word that Derek says.” He started untaping the IV that was in his arm.

“You can’t do this alone, Stiles.” Isaac practically whined. Stiles understood his desperation and his uneasiness, but there was no way he was going to leave Derek like that.

“It looks like I don’t have a choice since you guys can’t help me.”

Isaac sighed. “Stiles...”

“It’ll be alright, Isaac. Don’t worry about me, okay? The Argents might be werewolf hunters, but they are still humans.”

\-----

Stiles knew the combination to the safe. He also knew how guilty he would feel after using it, after emptying it of its contents without asking his father’s permission. But he had no choice. Yes, he and Derek had attempted some sort of mutual break-up, but as they both knew, it didn’t work out in the least. Neither of them were capable of keeping their word, just like neither of them would ever be able to stay away from one another. Derek might think he’d done something noble by ordering his pack away, but he shouldn’t have underestimated Stiles’ determination to get what he wanted. Adrenaline was a great painkiller, after all.

Stiles turned the dial back and forth three time, entering the date of his mother’s birthday and turning the handle so that the safe clicked open with an easy swing. Inside he ignored the jewelry, the important documents and reached for the silver handled gun that sat inside the faded, red leather holster. A box of bullets was its companion and Stiles had all he needed to hunt the werewolf hunters - and to get Derek back.

\-----

As he got closer, he knew that Derek was still alive. His heartbeat picked up and there was an invisible string connecting him directly to the older werewolf, tugging him to where Derek was being held and likely tortured within an inch of his life. There was never a question as to where Derek might be, Stiles just _knew_ where to go just like he _knew_ that he was not going to lose this battle, no matter the cost. He was willing to pay it.

Stiles parked his jeep and jumped out, checking the gun to make sure it was ready and steeling himself before making his way toward the old, rotting Hale house. Gerard wanted poetic justice, and since not only Derek’s family had died here but also his daughter, it was no surprise that this was where they had brought Derek once again. At this point Derek knew he was here and was probably freaking out, but there was nothing to be done about that.

He could hear Gerard talking when he reached the room. “-so you’ve got your pathetic Betas making an attempt to save you after all?”

Stiles pushed through the door and shook his head, holding up the gun. “Sorry to disappoint you, but it’s only the human.”

“ _Stiles_...” Derek said and Stiles thought he might be trying to put venom behind it, even attempting to tell him to leave, but he was too far gone at that point to succeed at either. They had been torturing him with wolfsbane, apparently, and Derek’s disapproval only came out as a moan of his name. It made Stiles’ heart jump unpleasantly.

“You came here by yourself?” Gerard sneered, running his hand menacingly down the length of the blade he held.

“Of course. I don’t need werewolves to help me put a bullet inside of your head, you psychotic geezer. Now let Derek go.”

Gerard actually laughed at that, but Chris was tense, his own gun pointed at Stiles. “Stiles, you’re injured, you shouldn’t even be here.”

Stiles smirked in disbelief at that. “Yeah, that would be because you _shot_ me, remember?”

“That was an accident. The code-”

But Gerard cut Chris off with ease. “That’s what happens when you lie with wolves, boy.”

Stiles turned his gaze, heavy with resolution, to Gerard again. “Y’know what? I think I’m okay with that.”

Gerard sighed overdramatically, pretending like he actually gave a damn as he said, “You’re throwing your life away and for what? You’re being seduced by this Alpha - that’s all it is.”

Stiles shook his head and the gun in his hand along with it, Chris and Allison both looking nervous by the movement. “You really don’t get it, do you? Those werewolves are my _family_. They are _Derek’s_ family and Derek...Derek is my _mate_.”

The werewolf’s head shot up and he stared down Stiles with a gaze so dark and deep Stiles could feel it smoldering inside of his chest. It was something that he could definitely get used to.

“You don’t know what you’re saying, boy. You don’t know what it even means to be the Alpha’s mate,” Gerard said sternly and for once he didn’t sound like he was mocking Stiles.

Stiles stood resolute, and despite how hard his heart was pounding inside of his chest, he felt eerily calm as he retorted. “I know exactly what it means. It means I’m leaving here with him so you can cooperate or I can shoot you in the fucking face now.”

Gerard’s face twisted back into that sick smile and his head moved back and forth in a jerky shake. “Wrong. It means you’re both going to die tonight,” he said and then he was raising his sword to make a swift, clean swing toward Derek’s middle and slice him in half.

But Stiles was ready - he had been ready the entire time. He pulled back the trigger easily and watched as the bullet travelled forward and his gun kicked back almost like the world had slowed around him and he could see everything in high speed accuracy. The bullet collided with the side of Gerard’s skull before he could reach Derek with the sword and then he was falling to the ground with limbs crumbling beneath him, the sword clanging loudly against the floor, mingling with the shouts of Allison’s “Grandpa!” and Chris’ “Gerard!”

The two younger Argents ran toward him and Stiles locked eyes with Derek, seeing too many emotions reflected back there to be certain what he was feeling. Stiles stooped down and scooped up the sword and crossed the room in what had to have been only two strides. He couldn’t focus too much on Derek right then - though he desperately wanted to reach out to him - so he lifted the sword and brought it down against a chain that was holding the werewolf up against the wall and it broke with ease under the unnaturally sharp blade. Stiles was cutting away a second chain just as he noticed that the Argents had become more frantic behind him, telling him that something was not right.

“Stiles! Get out of here!” Derek said with all the force he could muster, tugging at the final chain as he looked on at the danger that Stiles couldn’t see facing the opposite direction. When he turned around he was face-to-face with the kanima. But Jackson was still in the hospital.

“Grandpa!” Allison was sobbing and screaming in confusion _at the kanima_ and now Stiles noticed the bullet wound in the creature’s temple - the one that he had just shot a few minutes ago. Gerard was a kanima and Stiles hadn’t succeeded in killing him at all. Great.

“Allison, Stiles - get out of here! Do as he says!” Chris Argent was the one talking now and he was shoving at Allison’s shoulders, trying to get her to wake up and move but keep the kanima in front of himself at the same time. Derek was still struggling against the last chain and he was growling and howling all at once. 

The beast hissed and lashed its tail out toward Stiles, who jumped to the side to dodge it, fumbling the sword and the gun in the process. He dove after the gun as a reflex (even if the kanima couldn’t be injured by it, he would feel safer holding it), but so did the kanima and soon he was going to be mincemeat. Another guttural growl filled the room and then Derek was there, jumping in front of him before the kanima could sink its claws into Stiles. He had never seen Derek like this before - predatory and not fighting to save his own skin for once, but to wholly save someone else. He would have found the whole thing beautiful if it hadn’t been so insanely terrifying. Derek tossed the kanima back into the brick wall by the throat and was grinding his fist into the beast’s face. Stiles scrambled back to his feet and snatched up the sword again. He called Derek’s name and simply said, “Catch.”

Derek’s hand shot out and he caught the sword with easy grace. As if swordplay was something he did on a daily basis, Derek took the hilt into both hands and dealt a swift blow forward, severing the kanima’s body right down the middle. Black blood splattered him from head to foot and Allison was behind Stiles screaming in hysterics and Chris was wrapping his arms around her and pulling her away from the scene, apparently not objecting at all to the decision they’d made to obliterate his father in front of him.

With the lizard in two separate pieces, it was as if Derek lost all of his fight and the sword fell from his lax grip and his shoulders slumped and he began to sink to the floor. Stiles moved forward quickly to support him. “Hey, are you alright? Did he get you?”

Derek could only shake his head and Stiles decided that was enough for now. They needed to leave before Chris changed his mind about Gerard being dead, kanima or not. Stiles shouldered Derek and began leading him out and into his jeep. He opened the door and all but shoved the werewolf into the passenger seat and was bounding around to the driver’s side so quickly he tripped over his own feet. He picked himself up quickly and hopped in, peeling out as he floored the gas pedal.

\-----

He thanked his lucky stars that his dad was working tonight because the only place he could think to take Derek was his house and it wasn’t likely that he could heft him through the window. He dragged him up the staircase, worried that he should be doing something more - that something might still be happening to him. He asked as much when he deposited Derek unceremoniously onto the bed.

“No, nothing. Just need time. Some water maybe.” Stiles nodded enthusiastically to this and ran out of the room, getting Derek a glass of ice water in record time. Upon returning, he found Derek sitting up instead of lying on his back the way he had left him.

“Uh, here you go,” he said, handing the man the water. “Are you already feeling stronger?” he asked, intrigued.

“Yes,” Derek said and for a moment Stiles thought he wasn’t going to elaborate. Then he said, “we are always stronger in the presence of our pack. You’ve declared yourself as such - and _more_ \- so I can gain benefits from being with you that I wouldn’t from anyone else.”

Stiles hadn’t really known what being a mate really meant. All he knew was that he was never going to get rid of Derek, that he was most definitely in love with him and that no matter how hard they tried, they would never stop putting the other in danger. So that seemed to meet the requirements, except maybe he should have asked Derek about it first. “Oh right. I uh, I probably shouldn’t have done that, huh?”

Derek’s eyes blew open wider and he stared Stiles down, uncertainty in his face. “Why do you say that?”

“Well I mean, I didn’t exactly ask first and it’s kind of your choice who your mate is, right?” Stiles felt really awkward with all this talk about mates. It felt more intimate than any of the sex they’d ever had, which didn’t make any sense to him at all. 

The werewolf looked like he was considering this for a few moments before he shook his head. “It’s not a choice, really. It’s a sort of - destiny. I’ll know who my mate is because we are destined to be together. I will be able to smell it on him the second I meet him.” Derek looked at him pointedly and Stiles blushed, feeling like the world’s biggest idiot now. If he had been destined for Derek or Derek had smelled that sort of thing on him, certainly he would have said something by now. Which meant Stiles most definitely wasn’t going to be Derek’s mate, but a filler until that person came along. 

“Oh. Oh right. Well, I - I guess that makes sense...” he mumbled, taking a step back until he was leaning against the wall, bathed in shadows. He didn’t want the unhappiness to show on his face too prominently. 

Derek sighed and sat the glass of water on Stiles’ bedside table. “Come here,” he said and Stiles had a momentary lapse in judgement where he began to step forward automatically without hesitation and then realized that he was doing it and tried to stop himself and ended up doing a sort of front-back step dance for a few moments. Finally his curiosity won out and he went over toward the bed and Derek anyway. “You are such an idiot sometimes,” Derek mused and pulled Stiles down to straddle his lap and kissed his mouth hungrily. After Derek’s kidnapping, he had resolved himself to no longer fighting this off, but he didn’t think that it was going to amount to much knowing what he did now.

Still, a response was delicious enough, especially after the time they’d gone through and he relished in the feel of Derek’s lips (slightly chapped) against his own and his tongue darting out to slide across Stiles’ teeth and his bottom lip. He pulled Stiles closer by his ass, squeezing it teasingly and smirking against his mouth at the small yelp Stiles elicited.

Derek pulled Stiles’ shirt up over his head and pushed him back against the bed, taking in the sight of pale skin and tiny brown moles that decorated random planes on his skin. He leaned down and began mapping his way across Stiles’ chest with his nose and his mouth, smelling for areas that didn’t quite have his scent marked the way he wanted and pressing his saliva into the skin there for better marking. He sat up and pulled his own shirt off and then straddled Stiles’ waist, looking down at the bandaged wound. “Do you want to see?” he asked and Stiles looked up at him quizzically. 

“See what?”

“The truth,” he said and slowly began pulling the tape and the gauze off of Stiles’ bullet wound. This didn’t seem like a very normal thing to do and Stiles was not certain that mixing werewolf saliva with a healing wound was altogether sanitary, even if it was a bit different than normal spit might be. But that wasn’t the goal here, apparently, because once the wound was exposed, Derek told him to watch and placed his hand over the wound.

Stiles’ eyes practically jolted right out of his own head. It was an electric shock, the feeling that the contact had created; an intensification of two hundred percent compared to what Isaac’s connection had been. While Stiles had been connected with Isaac all he could see was his pain and sadness, but being connected to Derek was like having a window into his very soul. Stiles could see all the bad shit that had happened to Derek, certainly - and how that had affected him and turned him into what he was today - but he also could see every other facet of Derek, like his snarky sarcastic side, his protective pack leader side, his loving brother and son side... these were pieces of Derek that may not even exist anymore, but Stiles was able to see all of him - past and present and maybe even future mingling within those intense blue eyes.

When Derek pulled his hand away and the connection broken, Stiles found himself gasping for breath that he didn’t know he’d been holding; Derek was panting heavily as well. Though he hadn’t experienced the melding of their minds that long, he already missed the sensation completely. His soul felt like it was missing half of itself and Derek had filled up that space in the way it was supposed to be filled. Now it was hollow and empty again.

“Stiles,” Derek said and Stiles snapped to attention, looking into those blue eyes. He pointed down to Stiles’ side and the younger man looked down to see what the big deal was and saw... _absolutely nothing_.

“ _What?_ What the fuck?” His skin was pale and perfect, the bullet wound completely healed and Derek’s arm rippled with black-blooded veins. “That’s impossible! Isaac said he just took away pain!”

Derek nodded. “You can only take away pain - if you aren’t mates. Whenever you’ve found your mate, you can do all sorts of things you wouldn’t believe. And you can do much more with that person specifically as well. I was able to heal your wound completely because you _are_ the one.”

Stiles was shocked and it certainly showed. When he had said it in the Hale home to the Argents, it wasn’t that he hadn’t meant it - he definitely had. But he didn’t understand it or how he had come to that conclusion all of a sudden; it was like the notion just popped into his mind and he went with it. “You-you really believe that?”

Derek rolled his eyes, extremely unhelpful. “How much proof do you need?”

Stiles shook his head quickly. “I don’t - it’s not proof that I need, Derek. It’s you - the real you like I saw when you had your hand on me.”

“I can still put my hands on you in a different way,” he smirked and ran his hand down Stiles’ newly uninjured side, enjoying the smooth feeling and leaned down to suck at the nape of Stiles’ jaw. “Does that not say the same thing?”

He sighed into the mouth. “You know it doesn’t.”

Derek pulled back a bit so that he could look into Stiles’ face better. “Like I said, I just need time.”

Stiles nodded and nuzzled against Derek’s neck. “We’ve got that, so long as you don’t do anything stupid.”

“ _Who, me?_ ”

Stiles rolled his eyes this time and took the werewolf’s lips into his own, shutting him up for good.

-fin-


End file.
